The poor guy knew he was going to become the world’s most humiliated person. Unless you’ve been locked in a car trunk all week, you’ve probably seen why.

Blanchard is the professional bowler who couldn’t let go of the ball. His thumb stuck in the hole, he lost his balance and ended up plopping into the gutter.

You think Humpty Dumpty had a great fall?

“Never in a million years did I think it would be like this,” Blanchard said.

The video rocketed around the planet. Everybody from the Huffington Post to Howard Stern pounced. If Kazakhstan has a Howard Stern, you can bet he also teed up Humpty Blanchard and his Dumpty sport.

If everybody knew the whole story they wouldn’t be laughing. Well, yes they would. But they’d also have a world of sympathy for Blanchard and realize there’s a lesson to be learned here.

It wasn’t his fault, really. Right before the game, the PBA told him he couldn’t use his regular bowling ball.

It had a logo from his alma mater, Wichita State. That was a no-no since the TV contract allows only certain ads on bowling balls.

How was Blanchard to know?

He’s a 24-year-old rookie who’d never made a televised match. He got hot and was suddenly in the quarterfinal of the World Series of Bowling in Las Vegas.

Here’s something you probably didn’t know unless you own a pair of bowling shoes. Most pros use a different ball when they’re trying for spares. (If you don’t know what a spare is, just roll with me. It would take too long to explain.)

The spare balls are made of plastic and don’t hook as much. Blanchard hurriedly had a new one made, but they drilled the thumb hole all wrong. That pretty much ruined any chance of him advancing that day.

“It would be like Tiger Woods leading the U.S. Open and in the last round he’s told he can’t use his putter any more,” Blanchard said.

Actually, it would be like Tiger Woods having to putt with his 3-iron and then tripping over it and falling into a greenside pond.

Blanchard knew trouble was coming. Sure enough, in the ninth frame he picked up his logo-free ball, swung his arm, the 16-pound rock wouldn’t release and spun him into infamy.

Blanchard grimaced as he landed on his right hip. Doctors initially thought it might be been dislocated, but Blanchard gamely limped through the match.

The hip really got sore two days later on a 29-hour flight to a tournament in Qatar. Blanchard has bounced all over the world trying to break into big-time bowling. Qatar didn’t qualify, but at least nobody over there had heard of his pratfall.

They have now. And here’s the worst part:

The whole thing happened two months ago.

ESPN didn’t show the match until last Sunday. It wanted the matches to lead into this weekend’s PBA World Championship final. Blanchard has had to quiver under a Doomsday YouTube Clock since November.

Imagine Scott Norwood missing that field goal in Super Bowl XXV, and then knowing the news wouldn’t hit for two months. Or Chris Webber calling the timeout Michigan didn’t have, and CBS tape-delaying the Final Four until June.

“It’s pretty hard to sit there knowing what’s going to happen,” Blanchard said. “I’d have given a million dollars for them to show it live.”

That’s how he ended up at Alcatraz last weekend. Blanchard wanted to get his mind off the thought of becoming an international punch line. So he and his wife took a quick vacation to San Francisco.

Then the text messages started coming.

“Are you all right?”

“Hey, you’re on Yahoo!”

He was on everywhere. “Good Morning America,” “Live! With Kelly,” “Pardon the Interruption.” Ken Burns will probably be calling soon to do an 18-hour documentary of the fall.

It’s enough to make a bowler want to crawl into his thumb hole and never come out. Blanchard considered that, then he realized there was no use fighting.

He accepted an invitation to appear at Chris Paul’s celebrity bowling tournament on Friday. He’ll go on PTI and bowl against Tony Kornheiser. He’ll toss a few games with Reggie Bush, who was yukking it up as a guest co-host on Kelly Ripa’s show.

“I’m just trying to go with the flow,” Blanchard said. “I can use this as a teaching opportunity about bowling, and let people know there’s a lot more to it than me falling.”

However you feel about bowling, you have to admire Blanchard for getting up out of the gutter. Now he can spread a message that transcends his beloved sport.